Player Chapter 37. The Game Mechanic [Part 2]
She stared at the chocolate milk in her hands as if it held answers.
"I couldn't find them in my party list."
Her voice dropped.
"That's when I assumed they were really dead."
Her throat tightened.
"I mean… if they were NPCs, they shouldn't be able to leave the main storyline, right?"
She looked at him.
"That's how it worked in the original game.
He nodded slowly.
She continued, "And about this Saint of Dawn Temple… it's new."
Her brows furrowed.
"The game only mentioned the Dawn Temple briefly. Background lore. No active roles. No Saint of Dawn character."
She leaned back slightly.
"It wasn't supposed to matter."
She bit her lower lip.
"But now… it's different. I keep wondering… if it's because of a new patch."
Riven hummed softly.
"A patch implies developer intervention," he said casually. "But this feels more like… system corruption."
She stared at him.
"You're too calm about this."
He shrugged lightly.
"I'm used to complicated systems."
She shook her head slightly.
He tapped his fingers lightly against his mug. "But do you think the exit condition is still the same?"
Her eyes flicked up to him.
"Killing the Vampire Empress?"
She immediately shook her head. "Actually defeated her, not killed."
He tilted his head.
"In the main story," she explained slowly, "me and the Vampire Queen are supposed to be twins."
His brows rose slightly.
"She carries the Disaster Star," Elena continued. "I carry the Light Blessing."
She swallowed.
"We were separated as children."
Her voice softened.
"She was taken by vampires. Raised as their queen. I was raised as the Saint."
She stared at nothing for a moment.
"At the end of the game… I was supposed to cleanse her heart."
Her fingers tightened around the mug again.
"And take her with us."
Riven blinked once.
"…Redemption route?"
She nodded faintly.
"That was the true ending."
He leaned back slowly. "I see…" His eyes sharpened slightly. "So the Dawn Temple isn't the only anomaly here."
She frowned.
"What do you mean?"
He lifted his mug and took a slow sip.
"The Vampire Empress," he said casually. "She's also a transmigrator."
The words hit her like ice water.
She gasped.
"No way."
He shrugged lightly.
"I heard her muttering about WiFi."
Elena froze.
"…What?"
"WiFi," he repeated calmly. "Ranked matches. Stuff that doesn't belong here."
Her heart began pounding.
"She's aware?" she whispered.
"Very."
He leaned forward slightly.
"Unfortunately, she doesn't know you or me are transmigrators too. That could explain why she stopped attacking."
Her breath hitched.
"She didn't act like a real villain," Riven continued. "Well… Still playing the part. But not pushing too hard."
He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Because she knows she will be defeated in the end." He leaned back again. "But somehow… another variable started messing things up in her name."
Her eyes widened slowly. "The framing."
"The Dawn Saint and her knight," he said calmly.
Her fingers trembled slightly. "That means…" She swallowed. "The Saint of Dawn and her knight… might be transmigrators too."
He gave her a lazy smirk. "Bingo."
She sat there in stunned silence.
The chocolate milk in her hands had gone slightly cooler.
"But… why?" she whispered. "Why target me?"
Her heart felt heavy.
"Why not just let the story go the way it should?"
She looked at him helplessly.
"If the ending is redemption… then why interfere?"
Riven tilted his head slightly, as if analyzing a rumor article.
"Well," he said casually, "maybe they don't want to be side characters."
She blinked.
"They might want to be the main characters," he continued. "The protagonists."
Her chest tightened.
"But they're stuck as NPCs." He sipped his drink. "Imagine knowing you're in a game. Knowing the spotlight belongs to someone else." He shrugged. "That can mess with people."
Her mind raced.
"That makes sense…" she whispered.
She leaned back slowly, staring at the ceiling.
"If they're transmigrators… and they're trapped as NPCs…"
Her heart clenched.
"They might want to rewrite the narrative."
"Exactly."
She closed her eyes briefly.
"So instead of helping the redemption route… they try to replace it."
Riven nodded faintly.
"And if they eliminate you…"
Her breath hitched.
"They become the central holy figure."
"And if they eliminate the Vampire Empress…" he added.
"They remove the twin dynamic."
Her hands trembled slightly.
"They're cutting out the original plot."
He hummed softly.
"Which means we're not just dealing with villains."
She opened her eyes.
"We're dealing with players."
He smirked faintly.
"Competitive ones."
She felt cold.
"If the Vampire Empress knows she's supposed to lose…"
"She might be playing passive to survive longer," he said calmly.
Her chest tightened.
"Or…"
He paused.
"She's waiting for someone to change the script."
Her breath caught.
"Us."
He looked at her directly.
"We're not static anymore."
She stared at him.
Her heart pounded violently.
"You have access to me," he continued. "And I'm definitely not part of the original system."
Her fingers curled slightly into the fabric of her dress.
"That means the ending might not be fixed."
Her voice shook.
"Do you think…"
She hesitated.
"Do you think we can save her?"
Riven didn't answer immediately.
He studied her carefully.
"If she's really a transmigrator," he said slowly, "then she doesn't want to die. Or defeated."
Elena's chest tightened painfully.
"She's been alone too…"
Her voice cracked slightly.
"Probably."
Silence lingered between them.
Elena stared at her mug.
All this time… She thought she was the only anomaly.
The only broken piece in a fixed narrative.
But now… There were three of them.
Maybe more.
She felt a strange mix of fear and relief.
Fear because the system was unstable.
Relief because she wasn't alone.
She looked at him again. "You analyze this like a quest."
He smirked slightly. "I treat everything like a quest until it becomes war."
The way he said it was light. Casual. Almost lazy.
And then… It came.
That smirk.
The one that didn't belong to the slightly chaotic Riven she had been talking to.
It was sharper.
Colder.
Predatory.
"And if it turns into real war…" he added softly, eyes glinting, "I will have my fun."